The arithmetic sequence $(a_i)$ is defined by the formula: $a_i = -8 - 2(i - 1)$ What is $a_{9}$, the ninth term in the sequence?
From the given formula, we can see that the first term of the sequence is $-8$ and the common difference is $-2$ To find $a_{9}$ , we can simply substitute $i = 9$ into the given formula. Therefore, the ninth term is equal to $a_{9} = -8 - 2 (9 - 1) = -24$.